Y10 D127

Busy busy day yesterday interspersed with horrible sound of jets and choppers flying overhead. It would be nice and calm then all of a sudden I am living in a fucking war zone. One more day of this shit.

I slept in pretty late this morning. I was very tired last night and just kind of collapsed around 9. I spent the whole day packing the kitchen. Managed to get it about 70% done. 17 boxes total. Today I need to finish it by going through the pantry and getting rid of shit. Out dated stuff, stuff we will never eat, stale chips, etc. It all needs to go.

Stayed in the house for the most part. I did have to run to home depot at one point for more bubble wrap. So much bubble wrap has been used around here. This is the biggest move I have ever made and I am taking NO chances.

Speaking of the move, it looks like we are going to put an offer on something this morning. No promises or anything definite yet, but it might be happening. We shall see. I am almost ready with the documents the finance folks need. Just have to wait until tomorrow for a couple of things from the bank and it should be good.

B is stressing a bit. She expected this to go faster and she doesn't realize this IS pretty fast. Most people spend months looking at places and getting outbid. Her mother looked at 150 before getting one accepted. At the same time, she is definitely looking at more per day than the average person. She has since Thursday looked at least 15 houses. That's a lot. We will know more later today.

Made lamb for dinner. Was okay. I got a cheaper cut so it wasn't as good as I would have liked. y issue not the lamb's. Had it with a nice baked potato. Am making chili tonight to have it for lunch all week. Hoping to find some sourdough bowls too.

More packing on the horizon for today but that's about it.

Y10 D126

I am awake early today part by choice and part just because. I woke up a little while ago and was just like meh, I'm up. So I got up. I have some things to do today for the whole house thing. I need to start compiling documents for the finance folks. I have most of the stuff they need already, but not quite. The big one is our tax returns. I need to scan every single page and ugh. The drawback of doing this 2400 miles away. I should have thought ahead. It's my fault. I could just copy and mail them, but double ugh. Regardless, I have to take care of that. Plus bank statements. But that I am waiting until Monday to do. I want it to roll over to the 1st of the month. This way they get August and September, not July and August when I deposited the money into savings. Less questions.

Taught, napped, ate. Went to target in the evening since I needed conditioner and kept forgetting to buy it. Had a roast chicken with mashed and coleslaw. Tonight is lamb. I do eat better when she's not home as I can make more variety of dishes.

We do think we have found two houses to put offers in on. One is my favorite and I was hoping B would like it. Now to see if we can get it. She has 5 more to look at today so nothing is definite yet. But we're getting there, we're getting there.

I wonder how my vagabond sister is doing. Out riding the open road. She should message me.

Y10 D125

My day was productive but not very exciting yesterday. I took the day off as I had no classes and didn't feel like doing paperwork. I will pay for that next week, but whatever. I spent the day packing up the kitchen, reorganizing boxes, packing office stuff, packing artwork, etc. I got about 17 boxes done yesterday plus went to the grocery store and managed to run some errands like get labels and more frickin' bubble wrap. I made fish tacos for dinner and caught up on a bunch of tv. WTF is going on with AHS???

The sad part of the day was when the fucking air show planes started rolling in. Yep, it's that time of year again. Hence why we sent B when we did. Needed to get her away from everything. I've never liked that kind of thing. Growing up in an area where the stupid blue angels would fly overhead it was just noisy and dumb. Still is.

Enough about my shit, did I fill you all in on the kid? She has been doing great! She decided the commute back and forth was too much for her and is moving back into her own place. She wants to be closer to work and the stress has just not been worth it. Yes! If they stay together fine, whatever, but Yes! What I am most proud of her for is that she is putting her needs first. She is not suffering for someone else. That's a bold thing to do sometimes. And she should because she recently got a promotion to head designer for the 24 hour fitness account. That's right bitches. Any 24hf you go into will have artwork done by her. Watch for the changes over the next year. So proud of her.

B looked at 5 houses yesterday and eliminated 3. Bad foundations, electrical issues, weird walls, you name it, she saw it. Today is another set. I hope they're better than yesterday's.

Have a Pru class today and then the weekend. Just need to get through the next 8 hours.

Y10 D124

I promised I would wax philosophically today, and so I shall. But first, here's wonderwall.

No seriously, let me gripe about a couple of things first. The new gmail interface? Fucking hate it. Horrible. Awful. Rotten. Ugh. Bleh. Puke.

Second complaint? OMG stop being hot! It's going to be 88 here today. I am done with you heat. Bye now. Leave me. Freeze me. Um, Fall? Come do your job.

Okay, now for more serious stuff. I was talking with my tattoo guy yesterday about everything. Yes, I got another tattoo. It was one of our topics of discussion. "What's old?". We both think about the average 50 year old and what they 'should' or 'shouldn't do'. He's 48, coming up on 49. But like he thinks about his father and can't imagine him having 1 tattoo let alone getting a new one at 50. It was just not a thing. But he understands why we're moving. He may not be happy about losing two good customers, but he gets it. We're at that age where we really have more yesterdays than tomorrow and while some may not understand or approve of the decisions you make, you have to make them. I know some of you think I am out of my mind agreeing to this move, but I know it may be my last hope. I also know that home ownership isn't important to some of you. That's I feel in part due to you being where you are. I have talked to three people about this since Monday and they all say the same thing when I ask them if they have thought about buying a house - 'Not here ever' and that was three people from three different west coast areas. "But the snow!", yeah okay BUT HER EMAILS is just as stupid a fucking argument. How much do I bitch about heat? How many times do I have to say I don't like it? Not to mention that due to the impact of global climate change, that area hasn't seen a major snowfall or bad storm in the last 2-3 years. See you down in Arizona Bay bitches. For me the goal is to feel like I haven't lost everything. For the most part, my mental stability has been pretty fucking good the last year or so. I'd think most of you would agree. No major depression spots, no insane highs. Just normal people spikes and valleys. Part of that lately has been due to me knowing I will be out of this apartment. Again, talking to tattoo guy, we both agree that we don't want to be 75 living in a shitty apartment dealing with neighbors blocking driveways going to a job we hate. This is step one moving away from that future for me. And if that means I have to suck up a little snow, then so fucking be it.

Dropped B off at the airport about 3:25am yesterday, got back about 4. She had an uneventful day and arrived in MI around 2. She is planning to start meeting with the realtors at noon today. We also decided that it might make more sense for me to fly back, sign papers, take care of closing, then come home and we drive. This way we can have the luxury of time. No rushing, no issues. We get there, we go straight into our house. We will see how the timing of everything works out.

Taught my class until 1, headed to tattoo shop, finished up there around 4. Came back, made dinner, watched some tv, went to bed around 10.

Today I am taking the day for myself. Going to work on packing the kitchen. That's one of my big goals for the next few days. If I can get it done I will feel like I am making good progress. Also I need to do some grocery shopping. I just want a break. I have one more class tomorrow then the weekend.

Ugh the weekend. The airshow is this weekend. One of the main reasons B wanted to be gone. Can't say as I blame her. She is awake and not excited about it. Go figure.

Y10 D123

Yes, I am up insanely early. I had alarms set for 1:45 but I have had bad heartburn all night from the butter chicken I made. I kept waking up. Ugh.

Taught my class which went okay. No real issues. 12 students, only a couple that weren't paying as much attention as I would like. Otherwise no problems. We finished around 1:10 and then B and I did some packing. I made her pack certain areas because I didn't want to be responsible if something went wrong during the move. Also she went and purchased some speciality boxes while I was teaching. Some wine bottle type, lamp boxes, etc. We ended up packing her entire closet, parts of the kitchen, some artwork, and nightstands. Made me feel better. We also went over our list for her to look at one more time.

This is it gang. She is off to find us a house. Wish us luck. I may ponder philosophical about all of this tomorrow.

Y10 D122

I almost made a BIG mistake this week. I thought I was teaching Weds-Fri. Nope. It's today, tomorrow, and Friday. Thursday is my hole this week. Oops. Good thing I reviewed my notes and my calendar. The problem was one of the emails for this had the day wrong, but the number right. It said Wednesday the 25th. Nope. Wrong. Regardless, I am awake and ready to teach at 5:30. That's what counts.

Did a bunch of work in the morning, mostly following up with people and prep for this week. See above. We then took our friend back to the airport. We left at 10 which wasn't horrible. We managed to get back by 11:45. It finally hit B that she leaves tomorrow. She has been disassociating a bit on all of this and time's up, have to pay attention now.

We got a bunch of stuff organized for her, like making sure she takes the good camera, a measuring tape, printing out checklists, etc. I was going to make butter chicken for dinner last night but forgot it's a slow cooker recipe. So we will be having that TONIGHT instead. We ended up having to go to home depot for some more bubble wrap anyway and stopped at a red robin. It was okay. But we got the bubble wrap which is really what counted. There are some certain posters/artwork that I was not going to be responsible for packing on my own and we needed the wrap to finish.

Came back, started getting B packed, did some laundry, wrapped shit. Our big task was ranking all 30 houses we have saved. Didn't even realize we had 30 until we sat down to rank them. We first organized them into city to make driving around easier. The goal will be to look at the top 3-5 for each city to see what's what. We also did some demographic review, street mapping, etc to manage the list. 30 houses is not bad. Knock that off in a week or two.

Went to bed kind of early because I was tired. I do not know how I am going to adjust to EST the first few weeks we are there. It's going to be an experience that's for sure.

Get through today so I can have a BIG day tomorrow. I can do it.

Y10 D121

We found the coolest yet stupidest find at the vintage store yesterday. 3 seats from a defunct theater. Yes, we bought them. We will be putting them in our basement when we move. I got them for quite a bit less than they were asking which was nice. People who are afraid to haggle at stores like that crack me up. Most of the stuff is overpriced. It never hurts to ask.

We also went to a yarn shop the two of them wanted to visit, had corn ice cream, and generally enjoyed our day. We had pizza for dinner. Today our friend flies back home and I have to take them to the airport in a little while. Then repeat on wednesday for B. Whee.

Went to bed around 10 or should I say went to the couch. I forgot one of my mouth drops and I am paying for it with a sore throat this morning. Man those things work.

Have a some work to do today, then classes Weds-Fri. Early ones too. Have to take care of the prep this morning. Fun times.

Y10 D120

I have been pondering whether or not to start a new blog once we move. It's a big enough life change that ending this chapter and starting anew isn't a bad idea. But then again, I like seeing how damn long I have been writing this.

Our friend is here. She flew in last night and we had the fun of going to the airport on a Saturday to get her. I will be driving back and forth from the airport 3 times counting last night this week. Fun stuff.

We spent the day cleaning in preparation for our house guest. Took a break for some Hawaiian food. There does not seem to be any in MI which sucks butt. I think I should start an L&L franchise there. Be the Hawaiian king of Detroit. Yeah, that works.

We relaxed the rest of the day while waiting to go. Had an early dinner. Yes, she got in late enough for us to have dinner. Got back, everyone chatted for a while, then I let them have the bed and I slept on the couch because I knew I would be up earlier than them. Probably not too much earlier, but still, up earlier.

Have no idea what we're doing today. As far as they're concerned, they could spend the whole day knitting and crocheting and be happy. Works for me. I am happy staying inside myself.

Three more days until B leaves. Hopefully some of the ones we have been looking at online will pan out.

Y10 D119

I tried to sleep in, I really did. It was a rough sleep night though. We went to bed around 10 but I tossed and turned. I have been drifting in and out since 3:30.

Got through the final day of Disney people. Whew! They were a handful to say the least. Over 40 people taught last week but it made for a full week which is something we need. I am up to 82% utilization. Not too shabby.

We had cheap mexican for dinner. It looks like the place we like changed owners and the food was meh. This is the second place where this has happened to us recently. Makes it easier to leave. It's like the gods are doing us a favor.

Our friend lands later today and we spent the rest of the evening cleaning the house in preparation. Mostly that meant moving all the moving supplies out of the way. We did some packing and rearranging of boxes yesterday. I need to start lining up movers for quotes in the next couple of weeks. It should be about $4500. Between that and the $2500 this place wants, that's more than our fucking down payment. Insane. Bastards.

That's about it. Need to do my hair this morning. Otherwise not much else going on. I like it that way.

Y10 D118

Holy crap it's Friday. The last day of teaching these people. The final 10. Thank the gods for that. I am beat up from this week. I need a break. All week of 5:30 classes has been killing me. I need to sleep for an entire day at this point to recharge.

Got through the group of 14. Day two of two. Today is a different class with a combo of people from the two different groups this week plus a couple of new people.

Made chicken with sweet potatoes last night. If you think we're eating a lot of chicken lately, you'd be right. We're trying to eat through everything in the house and for some reason we had four packs of chicken breasts in the freezer. So we're eating through them dammit.

Only a few more days until we send B back. It's all I can focus on right now because it marks the start of the 'change'. I don't know what else to call it. I'm excited and scared and nervous and overjoyed all at the same time. Big change but hopefully for the better. It's going to be rough and stressful for a while but then it should settle down and I can settle down. It's definitely going to be interesting.

Okay, let's get through this day. Deep breath aaaaaaaannnnndddd go!

Y10 D117

I don't know if it is company culture or something, but this group is as bad as the other. People showing up not just 5 or 10 minutes late, but 30, 45, even an hour, and then expecting me to repeat myself on things. Fuck. You. It is not only disrespectful to me, but to everyone in the class. Annoys the fuck out of me.

Got through the day somehow. B made chicken fajita soup for dinner.

Went to bed around 10. Not much else going on. Kind of in a dead spot for a few days. Got to get through today and tomorrow. On Saturday a friend flies in for a short visit, then B leaves on Wednesday. I have a mostly full week next week. 3 out of 5 days. I can use the break after two back to back solid weeks. Two of the days are 5:30 start, one is 6. Wednesday will be tough because I will have to drop B off at like 3:30 and get back in time to start my class at 5:30. It's going to be a tough time.

Y10 D116

In a slightly better mood this morning. At least the kitchen isn't flooded this morning. That's a positive sign. Got all of that mess cleaned up yesterday thankfully.

You ever wake up and ponder a dream? I had one of my repeating concert dreams. One of those ones where I was waiting for a concert to start. Had front row spot at this particular concert. Don't know who it was or anything, but remember being in the front. But then it shifted and I was walking down a street towards some restaurant and trying to get around people who were in my way. I have a dream sort of like this all the time. I am walking through some kind of hotel or large venue with multiple restaurants all attached to each to other. Think Vegas or Reno kind of set up. And I am always trying to cut through them. Analyze that and get back to me.

Got through day two of my first group. Fucking quiet non-responsive pieces of shit is what they were. Sorry but they were pissing me off. I don't know if they did well because they never talked. Lumps all of them. New group today, let's see how they do. Maybe they will show up on time.

After class did some house cleaning. Need to vac up kitty litter because they're a mess. Cleaned out the freezer. Had meatballs for dinner. Watched some Justified. Went out for ice cream because B was feeling sad that she might not get ice cream again from this one particular place. Valid concern. Went to bed around 10.

Three more days. One week until B leaves.

Y10 D115

I have been up for over 40 minutes already this morning but spent 30 of it in the kitchen cleaning up a mess. B filled her water bottle before going to bed - her two gallon water container - and didn't push it far enough back so the little lever to get water from was pushed down and it proceeded to dump 2 gallons of water inside the fridge and all over the floor. Tells you how this day is so far.

My group sucks fucking ass. Late. Non-communicative. Useless. I have no time for them. I spent all of yesterday just pissed off and it isn't going away any time soon.

Had shit for dinner because no one wanted to cook.

Tired, so very tired of everything. If this fucking cat doesn't stop running, she's going out the window next.

Are we done yet?

Y10 D114

I was trying to think if we left the house yesterday and the answer is nope. Nothing wrong with that the way I see it. We actually spent a few hours of me teaching B how to do some stuff for my work. We're trying to get her some hours as a backup resource for developing some of the CBT material. We worked together on recreating one of the modules our current resource has done for us. Not sure why this stuff takes him as long as it does. We made it through an entire module in about an hour. An hour to get familiar and figure things out, an hour to create the module. The current guy is taking days. WTF?

We did a little packing as well. Plus some strategizing. What stays behind, what goes kind of stuff.

This is getting real, isn't it? 8 more days and she's out of here. In 45 days or so, I will be moving across the fucking country. I will be living in EST. Wow. Crazy. A whole new chapter of my life is about to start. End scene 1. B was talking about that a bit yesterday. She worries some times that people might see her as flakey because she tries so many different things. I said no. I'd rather try a million things in this short time we have on the planet than live a life of regrets because I was too scared, too comfortable, too whatever to do nothing. Is it better to live in a safe little bubble and pine for experience? Or would you rather try and say "not for me" but at least have the memory and experience to last you?

I say go for it and damn what other people think. Too many people live in the bubble. They live their sheltered little lives. Especially people from her part of the world. They judge, the point, but then they die wishing they had done shit. I've done shit. And woman, you will have done shit too. Two cross country moves before 30? Been to Australia before 30? See more states than half your family has seen in their entire lives? Sounds like a fun fucking time to me.

All week 5:30 - 1:30. Two 2-day classes and a single group on Friday. About 40 or so people this week. It will be longer and tiring but it's another full week. My utilization is about 82% this year and this should bump it up a little bit. We shoot for at least 80% so I am happy.

Time to get ready. Fun times.

Y10 D113

As promised, I slept in again. That will be the last time for the next five days. Completely unrelated - I looked up Oregon's noise laws. We apparently have one of the 3 worst in the US as far as being able to enforce it. This is why these fuck heads can change out their exhaust and blast up and down my fucking street at 7am like a bunch of fucking assholes. God I fucking hate them.

Went for a drive yesterday. Had lunch out as I had a few credits on my Landry's account. Got a $50 meal for $22. Not too shabby. Got enough for leftovers too. One of our goals was to stop at sleep number and have them explain how to pack up our bed. We don't want to sleep on an air mattress while waiting for the movers either before or after. Our bed can be smushed down pretty small luckily and should easily fit in the car with us. In a few weeks we're going to do a dry run and see how things fit and if we should buy an overhead storage unit or not.

We also went to the craft store, old navy where B got some jeans, and the fancy fruit store where we got some nice cheese for a late night snack.

We managed to get rid of our barstools to a friend yesterday too. That opened up some room. We did some packing of things too. Wow, we really did a lot last night. I didn't even realize how much we did until now. Talk about a full day.

Finished up everything and went to bed around 11. Today we are going to work on teaching B how to use some software and that's about it.

Y10 D112

I slept in this morning and will probably do the same tomorrow. All next week I will be up around 3:30 so I am taking advantage of the weekend for once. Next weekend we have a friend visiting from out of town and we will be all active and shit, therefore I need to use this weekend for me.

Really disliked most of the group yesterday. Especially the bitch who 10 minutes had to loudly proclaim "This class is too easy for me" and then dropped off. Wow. Okay. I guess you think you know everything. There was one other student who had more advanced skills than the class level but she stayed through the whole thing and at the end said she was glad because she learned more efficient ways to do things and did manage to learn a few new things. There it is. Sometimes when it is these private groups, they either don't realize or don't care that we're not an internal resource. Frankly I don't care if you leave because we get paid whether you stay or not, just don't be such a dick about it.

B went to the U-haul store while I was teaching and got some more boxes. When she leaves on the 26th I plan to start packing like crazy. Kitchen. Bathrooms. I will be living in hotel mode. By the time she gets back here I want to be 85% done. I know we will still have roughly 30 days until escrow closes, but I want to be ready. I will also be getting quotes once she is gone. I am estimating $4000 for this move. Let's see how close I come.

We had leftovers and random food for dinner. Neither of us felt like cooking real food. Just not in the mood.  We did go out to the store for some ice cream later. Watched some tv and went to bed around 10:30.

Have to go the grocery store this morning, but that's about it. No other immediate plans on the horizon.

Y10 D111

I dislike the new google update. I didn't ask for rounded buttons and such. I liked the nice square edges. If you haven't seen it yet, the next time you fully close Chrome and reopen it, it will probably update on you. That's what happened to me. It fugly.

Finished my third day with that group. Got through it. One last day of this 8:30 stuff. Today I have 15 people from Disney.

Man I have a headache. It's a pressure headache but still, it hurts. Ah the changing of the seasons.

The kid is off on an art retreat this weekend on the coast. Very cool for her. She is living her best life and makes me so proud.

Made chicken enchiladas for dinner. They were okay. I wasn't 100% pleased.

Went to bed around 10.

Y10 D110

I am so fucking sick of spam. Every goddamn morning I wake up to 25-30 of the same fucking message. Why do we still get this shit in this day and age? Who the fuck is clicking on shit like this that it's still seen as a viable method? Useless fucking administration. I haven't complained about them lately because it's been such a shit show of lies, damn lies, and well, even more fucking lies, that there isn't much else to say. It truly does surprise me that there hasn't been an attempt made. Or that the earth just hasn't opened up and swallowed the idiot whole. The final nail in our collective coffin will be the confirmation of Kavanaugh. It will be the end of the world as we know it, but hey, I feel fine.

Day two of my awful, awful time. Two more fucking days of it. Last day with this group, then a new 15 tomorrow. Next week is a full week too. I know it's good, just annoying. At least next week is a full week of 5:30am.

Sloppy joes for dinner. With broccoli tots. Got to keep the balance.

Watching Justified last night and an episode had Chadwick Boseman in it. That was funny. No black panther yet, just drug dealer #1. If he only knew that in a few short years he would be an idol to millions of small children and be in the most successful super hero movie to date.

Cut my finger last night while putting the dishes away. Something poked me in the utensil drawer. I can't wait until we have better drawers. OH! We got our neighbors FINED yesterday. Six fucking days of multiple garbage bags in front of their front door and garage. Finally the office was able to see it in time to write up a formal remedial action document. Hefty fines attached to that. I don't think we will be seeing any door garbage again.

I can sleep more?

Y10 D109

It rained quite a bit yesterday. Nothing heavy or serious, but the ground is quite yet. Still wet. I like it. But I feel for those on the east coast right now being evacuated. We had four students pull out of one of the other instructor's classes for today due to mandatory evacuation. That sucks.

Did day one of the hell time. Three more to go. The group right now is pretty good. It's a different group on Friday but I have at least two more days with this set. We finished around 4. Nothing exciting.

B made chicken soup for dinner. Had that with a caesar salad. Watched some TV and went to bed.

We are dealing with our neighbors and their damn garbage again. Multiple bags outside their doors for days and one in front of their garage. How fucking hard is it to take your garbage out? Give me a break.

Booked B's flight last night. Airlines piss me off. One wanted $275 + $50 premium seat charge + $50 taxes and fees for a total of $375. Note that's not even first. It's premium. The layover would have been in Seattle and the on to DTW. The other (preferred) airline was $333 + $40 in fees for FIRST for a total of $373. Longer flight as it has a 2.5 hour layover, and it goes through Phoenix. Guess which one we chose? She leaves here 9/26 at 3am and flies out at 5.

While she is gone I will continue to pack, call moving companies for a quote, and sit ready to go. This is happening people. By end of November we will hopefully be moved into our own home. Something I never thought would happen again for me.

B made banana bread for me yesterday. Pretty fucking good too. I might have some right now.

Y10 D108

I have the sinus headache again today. AC in the bedroom on while the rest of the place has windows open and pressure changes. I hate this time of year. I hate most of the year, don't I? There's like a 3 week period where I don't complain about things. Think that will improve when we move? I doubt it. Once a grump always a grump.

Yesterday was okay. A lot of people showed up late which pissed me off. We started at 5:45 officially. 2 or 3 had real technical issues but most were just fucking late. They were a good group overall, but I had to make up the time somewhere. We didn't finish until 1:25. However, I would rather have that than the rest of this week and it's bullshit 8:30 - 4:30. I fucking hate this. I don't like it when I have to do it onsite, I sure as hell don't like it when I have to do it from home. It sucks.

Our realtors went and looked at the one property for us and to quote "It was a shit show". Apparently it was in need of massive concrete work, foundation work, was a mess, was right on the main street. Welp, out of the running for us. Oh well. Not like there aren't other ones. This one was nice for the price, but apparently now we know why. We would really like to lower our monthly housing costs. At 240 we're looking at 1700 a month. Basically exactly what we're paying right now. But if we can drop it closer to 200, then we're looking at 1400 a month which means that over time when PMI drops, 1200 a month. So I can put money to other stuff or even retirement. Plus the lower the payment, the more I have to pay MORE and get it down quicker. If it is 1200 a month and I can pay them 1800 then I can drop off 1 year for every 2. Got to work the angles.

Made breakfast for dinner last night. Eggs, waffles, bacon. Was good. We watched some tv and I went off to bed at 10:30. Sigh, let the hell days begin.

Y10 D107

I am tired and sore this morning. My shoulder has been giving me trouble for days. I slept on it funny or something but it hurts like hell. I try not to lie on it when I sleep but you know how that goes. Dear person who just went down the street at 3:30am, your car is a piece of shit. Fix your exhaust. Why doesn't this fucking state have exhaust laws? I just looked it up and we are one of a handful of states with such a poorly worded and impossible to enforce exhaust law that everyone here is able to circumvent it without even breaking a sweat. If I were running for Governor, I would make that a major platform. People would love me.

Packed my bathroom up yesterday. I felt like I hadn't packed anything in a while so I wanted to get something done. Mostly it was a lot of cleaning and throwing out shit I hadn't touched in a while. Ended up being two boxes of stuff total packed. Accomplished something.

Made pad thai for dinner. Wasn't happy with it.

Tried to go to bed early but B got me out of bed to deal with a 'fish emergency'. One of the fish in our big tank died and the other ones were eating his corpse. Fuckers. This is what happens when you have seriously aggressive fish. Nom nom nom.

Today is 5:30 class. Then four days of 8:30 classes. Not confusing to my poor brain at all. Nope. But it's private stuff for the next two weeks primarily. Let's see how smart they are.

Y10 D106

Don't worry, not dead. Just slept in. I know weird, right? I have two FULL weeks ahead of me teaching and a couple next week are 5:30am start times and the entire week after that is 5:30 start times. So I figured I would take advantage of the one day I have to sleep in. I didn't go to bed until almost 11 anyway so it's not that horrible. I did wake up at 4:30 and said screw it.

We did a lot of physical labor yesterday. Worked down in the garage. Labeled everything, cleaned out some stuff, created a pile of donations. Everything in the garage is good to go. When the time comes to pull the trigger, we are ahead of the game. 16 days until B flies back. We have been narrowing down the list of ones for her to go look at.

After working in the garage we took the list of homes we have saved and looked up every single one on a map. This reduced our list by more than half. This one is too close to a main road. This one is next door to a day care. This one is behind a high school. So much easier than driving around to all of these just to be disappointed. Our search criteria is also being specific. Must have over 1100 sq ft. Must have basement. Must have garage. It's making it easy to narrow in without driving a realtor nuts going all over. B's mom dragged these poor realtors to 150(!!) houses before she chose one. We are looking at about 12. Heck, the last two times I went through this process, I looked at about 6 or 7 in San Clemente and like 4 the first time. Less market choices, sure, but also I don't have time for that.

Made slow cooker butter chicken for dinner. It came out beautiful. We had ice cream out for dessert. A little treat.

Watched some tv, relaxed, went to bed.

No plans for today other than laundry. Woo!

Y10 D105

As feared, there was a moment of terror yesterday when it looked like FedEx had fucked up and wasn't going to be delivering my phone. My delivery status went from a time range to 'pending'. Um fuck you and your pending. I want my damn phone. Luckily it still made it here. I have a normal people phone back. Took me hours to get it all setup, but I managed. I am still finding little things to tweak like notifications, but otherwise I am good.

Did my class from 5:30 until about 1:10 yesterday. Managed to get through it. No issues there other than the same one person who shouldn't even be near a computer let alone a system admin. Is what it is.

Went to get some groceries and dinner. Had italian. Was okay. We were both disappointed in the food quality this time. But it was acceptable.

Went to bed around 9:45 and slept pretty solid.

Today I have to go to the grocery store, then work in the garage. The weather has begun cooling down and it rained last night which was nice. I shouldn't need more than a few hours down there but the cooler the better.

Y10 D104

A lot going on this morning. Let's make sure I don't forget to capture it all.

Slept okay. Woke up at 11:45 from a bad dream involving spiders. I fucking do not like spiders. In my dream there was one with like crab claws in my closet. I was trying to smush it but it would not smush. Instead it was coming after me. Nope. No thank you. Wake up now.

Just woke up from the middle of a second dream where I was driving in the rain in what was supposed to be downtown except somehow I missed the road exit and was cruising on rooftops. Weird.

I am up early because all three of my students are in DC and we are starting at 5:30 this morning. Don't really mind because my day will finish early. Just a little tired.

This is in direct contrast to next week where my boss failed to mention until 11am yesterday that 4 out of 5 days next week will all be 8:30 - 4:30 classes. Fucker.

My students are okay. One has weak computer skills but yet somehow is a system administrator. Go figure.

RIP Burt Reynolds. Even though he was 82, it's still a sad passing. A leading man for sure.

Had leftovers for dinner because it was hot and we were lazy. Heat should break today. Let's go look. Meh not quite as cool as I would like but it's definitely heading down and will be rainy and in the 60s next week. I can tolerate today in exchange for that.

I think that's it. Oh! My phone comes back today. Thank sweet bejeebeez on that. I am so sick of this bitch ass phone. FedEx better not screw me and not make it today. They won't be back until Monday if they don't show today. I need my damn phone.

This has been a weird week. Holidays. Days off. Early start times. Mid pay cycle. Oy. Got paid this morning. That's good. Now to pay bills. Joy.

Y10 D103

Got up early yesterday to work with the Ireland group. We ended up doing three different test groups between 4 and 9am. Good times.

I then worked on some CBT stuff until about noon. Done. Day over.

Rest of the day was spent doing not much of anything else. Read a little. Reading two books right now. One fiction, the other non.

Had peppers for dinner. Didn't leave the house except to take out the trash. It was 90 yesterday. Supposed to be cooler today but not by much. Fuck summer. Summer needs to go away. Next week rain comes. Bless it.

Two days of formal classes starting today. Three students. Barely enough to cover my salary. BUT in two weeks I go full week of training for Disney. All 5:30am classes too which makes me happy.

A replacement phone has been shipped. I am not happy they are sending me a refurbished device. But they are sending me a replacement so there's that. I am not the kind of person who would ever consider buying a refurb so it bugs me that my phone will be one. At the same time, I can't use this piece of shit any longer. I need it to be gone. Supposed to be here by tomorrow 8pm. Just give me my damn phone back.

We have a friend flying in to visit on the 22nd. That will be nice. Have to book B's flight out this weekend. We are getting close people.

Y10 D102

Worked with the Ireland folks until about 9am yesterday. From 4. So that was my work day. The TN stuff I got wrong and is this morning at 7. Oops. Oh well. Took B to the chiropractor because her back has been killing her. Worked a little in the garage packing. Made potato soup for dinner. Went to bed around 10.

Y10 D101

We worked on the patio storage as planned yesterday. Got all the boxes labeled and some repacked and some stuff ready for goodwill. I need to drop a bunch of stuff off today. Today's adventure is doing the same thing in the garage. We have a storage closet in the garage that is just packed with boxes from when we last moved that we have no room for inside. Not to mention things like my floor standing speakers which are going to be AWESOME when I have room again for them in a basement. But they need to get labeled and marked on the list. 23 days until we send B off.

That was our big accomplishment yesterday. For dinner we made lentil tacos with the vegan cheese she likes. I opted out of the cheese. Not a fan. Sorry. It tastes like cashews to me no matter what you do to doctor it up.

We watched a little tv and went to bed around 10. A good boring day.

Right now I have a meeting running for some testing with the Ireland folks. I also have a later meeting with the folks in TN about some stuff. No classes until Thursday and Friday. I am pretty busy this month with Disney classes and some public stuff but it's not full weeks anywhere. I did my timesheet and expense report yesterday and saw I was running about an 82% utilization for the year. The target is always 80% which means I am doing okay. I will take it.

Y10 D100

100 days in to another year. Ding dang doodely. How time flies when you're going insane.

Today is a holiday. The day meant for working people to relax and take some time from the factories and the stress of life. Oh wait. Hold on let me fix that - Time for the office worker to take some time from pushing paper while the retail and labor jobs of the world keep on going! There, that's better.

We did very little yesterday. Went grocery shopping. Together. That's an unusual thing unto itself. Normally I go because B isn't awake but she was up by 7 and so we went to the store as one. Coolio. That was our big trip out. Not much else accomplished. Today we're going to work on the patio storage. Oh boy.

We did get the car washed yesterday and discovered that's what causes the little piece of plastic in the front to come off. The dryers are blowing too hard and it just goes a flying. At least we were ready for it to happen and we told the dealership so now they're ready for it to happen.

Made chicken and rice for dinner.

That's about it. It was as promised, a boring ass relaxing day.

You ever think about the person who's going to read this in 50 years? I feel like one of those civil war guys "had more hard tack today. found a scorpion in me boot". But we learn so much from those day to day journals sometimes. More than we learn from history books. History is written by the victors. Journals are written by the common.

Heard nothing back on my phone yet other than they received it Thursday. But thanks to the 'holiday' I probably won't get any more news until tomorrow at the earliest. I hate this fucking burner. It's so poopy. Just slow and clunky to use. Need. Real. Phone. Back. Argh.

Y10 D99

I won't lie, I am a bit confused as to what day it is right now. But it's Sunday and it's September. Wow. Feels like it was just Christmas, doesn't it? Oh geez, I just realized it's September and in 9 days the whole nationalism 'never forget' crap will come crawling across everything. Ugh.

I went non-stop yesterday. I was at the airport so early and I tried to find a corner to hide in, but being paranoid, I couldn't like doze off for a while. There's no lounge at Burbank unfortunately. It's just not a big enough airport. By the time my flight boarded I was too wound up to nap. I did get a decent breakfast on the flight even if it was short.

Landed at noon and then we went non-stop. We had to make a couple of stops on the way home including the car dealer to pick up a part they needed to order for us. Then the grocery store, dinner unpacking, bills, stuff around the house, and so on. I finally slowed down around 7 and was so exhausted I ended up in bed at 9:15. Damn, I am old. Remember when I wouldn't go out until 9:15? Seems so long ago.

Got an email from Google. Hopefully my new phone will be coming this week. I can't take this baby burner much longer. It's so slow and clunky. If I didn't know better it would be okay, but sheesh. Knowing what a phone is supposed to be like, this one is just ugh. The camera is horrible too. I tried to take pictures of receipts but they're just blurs. Awful.

Today is laundry and household stuff. No major plans thank goodness.

Y10 D98

I am at the airport already. I decided it was easier to sit here for 5 hours than to deal with any kind of LA traffic on a holiday weekend. I left the client around noon yesterday and the 210 was at a dead stop. When I went out to dinner at 5, it was still stopped. At 7 I went to look for something in the car, and gee what a shock, it was still dead stop. So fuck that. I wasn't about to wait until 7am to get on the 210/134. Nope. So I sit here until 9. At 5 I will go get some breakfast and at 7 I will go through security.

Yesterday something cool happened. I have this joke where I say to the group "You know what's really cool? Chocolate cake! And yeah I guess is cool too.". Well yesterday I made that joke but after the punchline I paused and sincerely said, chocolate really does sound good. Quietly in the back I noticed one of my students reaching into her purse. She then slowly and quietly came to the front of the room AND HANDED ME A PIECE OF CHOCOLATE CAKE. NO JOKE. I was stunned. I swear I met a real life witch yesterday. So cool. I ended up eating it for dessert last night.

My session went off without issue. Another 25 people. In total I taught over 85 people this week. I am butt tired for sure. I did take a little nap when I got back, packed, had dinner, then went to bed around 9. Next week I have a two day class Thursday and Friday, some other stuff for Wednesday, but Monday (holiday) and Tuesday are mine. We just closed some HUGE business with Disney (yay!) and that will keep me tied up the rest of the month.

Before I go, a quick shout out to my buddy who will be doing stand-up in December downtown Portland. I am really impressed at this. Not because I don't think he's funny but because I never saw him as the public speaking type. So rock on my friend, I am proud of you for getting out there and doing this. If we're in town you can count on us being there. Heck, even if we're not, if I can fly in, I will. This is awesome.

Time to make the donuts.